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Shopaholic pensioner dies in her home after being buried under mountain of unopened items

By James Tozer
Last updated at 6:52 PM on 08th January 2009

An elderly spinster who obsessively hoarded clothes and accessories died in her own house when a mountain of suitcases fell on top of her, burying her alive.

Joan Cunnane, 77, a shopaholic who spent hours at branches of John Lewis and Marks & Spencer, claimed to own 300 scarves as well as thousands of trinkets and valuables. The neatly-organised goods took up so much space in her bungalow that she only had a 2ft wide path to get around it, and both her car and garage were packed with other purchases.

She was reported missing earlier this week when she failed to attend a hospital appointment but while police searched her home it took two days to sift through her possessions and find her body. It was eventually found buried under a pile of cases in a back bedroom where she had apparently gone in search of a favourite item on Boxing Day.

The eccentric pensioner, who had no known family, is thought to have died of dehydration several days earlier.

Yesterday neighbours spoke of their shock at the macabre death of Miss Cunnane, a retired BT operator and devout Catholic who attended church services every weekend.
Her closest friend, Roy Moran, also 77, said: 'I think it just gave her pleasure to buy things - none of it was really essential.

'I once asked her how many scarves she had. She said she thought about 300.

'I asked her why she needed that many. She said they were all different colours.

At least her hoarding was clean and well organised, whoever has to sort out her belongings will have a much easier time of it than the family of the other guy who died this week.

Very true. These two people died the same way but they had very different problems. The guy was a classic hoarder but the woman was more of a derailed shopper.

I took this long, long test once to determine my clutter "style" and I was a Tosser. Mr. Snaps was a Collector. The book said that one of the most effective couples contained a Tosser and Collector. Once they reach a détente, the Tosser keeps the Collector from dying alone buried by Collections while the Collector makes sure that the Tosser doesn't end up in a featureless, bleach-saturated tile enclosure. :p